Now, the Indiana house of representatives has passed a bill similar to Arkansas’, over the objections of Eli Lilly, Cummins Corporation, Alcoa and Salesforce.
If these corporations keep up their advocacy, they’ll put activists out of work — but probably not any time soon. Only 21 states prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, and only 17 ban discrimination based on gender identity. A federal bill has been pending for forty long years.
I can actually see the day when ExxonMobil lobbies for the retention of inclusive state and local nondiscrimination ordinances (you heard it here first, folks). Uniformity is easier than a patchwork of laws (how many times have we heard that from companies?) and as will soon become really clear to the world’s largest oil company, the workplace environment only improves when everyone feels included.